Tuesday, September 26 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM Session B: Broadband Entertainment Programming and Content In the past six months the entertainment industry has clearly staked its claim with regard to the creation of original programming, innovative technology, and the desire to serve a massive viewer audience on the Net. Whether it’s through newly branded names or traditional media companies with divisions that compete in the space, broadband information and entertainment content, from live streams to archives, animation to massively delivered data, is reinventing entertainment on the Net. While some start-ups in the field have had tough going, the well managed companies have persevered. On this roundtable we bring together a group of the leaders in this new movement toward broadband entertainment independence. Jonathan Taplin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Intertainer Lara Stein, President, iCast Comedy Joe DiNunzio, Chief Executive Officer, Z.com David Wertheimer, Chairman & CEO, Wirebreak Mark Lieberman, Chairman and CEO, Interactive Video Technologies (IVT) Doug Scott, EVP of Product and Technology, HSX Hollywood Stock Exchange Ben Berkowitz, Writer, Inside.com, Moderator Jonathan Taplin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Intertainer: For more than three decades, Jonathan Taplin’s career has been full and varied -- one heavily seasoned with experience in the entertainment worlds of music, film and finance. As President and Chief Executive Officer of Intertainer, Taplin is now embarking on his latest venture, tapping into the world of digital convergence where his 35 years of in-depth knowledge helps him forge Intertainer’s path into the most dynamic media revolution in history. Taplin’s introduction into the entertainment business began in 1965, when he was just 18 years old. The summer before his freshman year at Princeton University, Taplin ventured to The Newport Folk Festival, where he landed a job with The Jim Kweskin Jug Band. That experience led to a dream job, serving as road manager for Bob Dylan and The Band. Taplin witnessed firsthand the birth of folk rock with Dylan’s performances, and for the next seven years, Taplin worked for the musical poet and The Band. Then in 1974 he moved to Hollywood to pursue his dream of producing films. He arrived in Los Angeles with just one referral to seek out, a young director named Martin Scorsese. Together they produced Mean Streets, starring Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel. The project became a critical and box office success, and went on to be selected for The Cannes Film Festival. He defined independent films and the new wave of ‘70s films. Between 1974 and 1996, Taplin produced 26 hours of television documentaries and 12 feature films including The Last Waltz, Until The End of the World, Under Fire and To Die For. His films were nominated for Oscar and Golden Globes and chosen for The Cannes Film Festival seven times. His television work garnered three Emmys. After 10 years of producing films, Taplin ran in more financial circles, where he advised Sid Bass and Richard Rainwater in their successful attempt to save Walt Disney Studios from a corporate raid. This experience brought him to Merrill Lynch, where he served as vice president of media mergers and acquisitions. In this role, he helped re-engineer the media landscape with such feats as helping in the leveraged buyout of Viacom. What intrigues Taplin the most about Intertainer is that "a new paradigm is being created that takes control of the media for the first time." "Today, there is just too much media for people to consume. It’s overwhelming. What we’re doing is giving consumers control over their entertainment choices by building a service to make it possible." Joe DiNunzio, Chief Executive Officer, Z.com: Synthesizing the creative, technical and strategic development for Z.com is the responsibility of CEO Joe DiNunzio whose managerial dexterity was honed while serving as Senior Vice President of New Product Development for Walt Disney Imagineering.  There Joe was responsible for crafting the company's overall creative and technical development strategy in addition to creating and leading the team that conceived, designed and built DisneyQuest: indoor interactive theme parks built in Orlando and Chicago which integrated technology and art, creating a new generation of story-based attractions driven by CG and virtual reality software. Prior to leading the Disney teams that developed the company's initial on-line strategic and content plan and R&D strategy, the Stanford University MBA graduate held management positions with Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Proctor & Gamble and Sun Microsystems. David Wertheimer, CEO, WireBreak Entertainment: David Wertheimer, Chairman, President & CEO - The chief executive of WireBreak Networks, David has been in the online and technology industry for over 15 years. Most recently, David was president of Paramount Digital Entertainment (PDE), where he created and implemented a vision for Paramount Pictures' presence on the Internet. Under David's guidance, PDE became a leader in the online content arena, launching over 31 sites on the Web in three years, including substantial brand extensions such as Star Trek: Continuum and Entertainment Tonight Online. David also led a team that worked with large advertising companies to create new forms of hybrid television/Internet entertainment. Through careful growth and bottom-line management, David created for Paramount a highly profitable online content business--an unprecedented feat in the industry. USA Today called David Wertheimer one of five "Entertainment Executives to Watch", and Electronic Media placed him at the top of their Hot List for 1998. Before joining Paramount, David worked for Oracle, the second largest software company in the world, where he developed relationships with major entertainment companies interested in building interactive media businesses. Prior to that, David held various sales and marketing positions at NeXT Computer, a software and hardware company. In 1988, while David was getting his computer science and business degree at Duke University, Leadership America chose David as one of 50 students in America with the most outstanding potential for leadership. Additionally, in 1983, while still a teenager, David founded and ran The Chalk Board, a successful online services company in Dallas, Texas. Mark Lieberman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Interactive Video Technologies (IVT): As an entrepreneur, executive, venture capitalist and government official, Mark Lieberman has played a leading role in advancing the convergence between technology, communications and media. Mr. Lieberman joined IVT as CEO in January 2000 after serving as Chairman of the Board for one year. Previously, Mr. Lieberman served as President of About.com Ventures, where he focused on mergers and acquisitions, investments, strategic partnerships, and channel development. From 1996 through 1998, Mr. Lieberman was the Executive Vice President, Entertainment, Communications & Media division of Cahners Business Information, a Reed Elsevier company, where he oversaw the company's entertainment assets, including Variety, Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News magazines. Mr. Lieberman served in the Bush Administration from 1989 through 1991 as Associate Deputy Secretary and Assistant Secretary for Technology (Acting) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Among his accomplishments, Mr. Lieberman led the U.S. in negotiations with Japan and the European Community on high-technology research programs. Mr. Lieberman has also practiced intellectual property law and clerked at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He attended law school at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in New York City, and graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1981. Ben Berkowitz, Writer, Inside.com: Ben Berkowitz covers entertainment and technology convergence for Inside. He was associate editor of the Y2K Media Watch project and the Online Journalism Review, and was co-founder and managing editor of OnlineJournalism.com.